346 Limits of our Coal Supply. [July, 



his practical lessons have again sprung up among us. 

 Some are already inquiring how he managed to roast 

 112 lbs. of beef at the Foundling Hospital with 22 lbs. of 

 coal, and to use the residual heat for cooking the potatoes, and 

 why it is that with all our boasted progress we do not now, 

 in the latter third of the nineteenth century, repeat that 

 which he did in the eighteenth. 



The fact that the consumption of coal in London during 

 the first four months of 1873 has, in spite of increasing 

 population, amounted to 49,707 tons less than the corre- 

 sponding period of 1872, shows that some feeble attempts 

 have been made to economise the domestic consumption of 

 fuel. One very useful result of the recent scarcity of coal 

 has been the awakening of a considerable amount of general 

 interest in the work of stock-taking, a tedious process which 

 improvident people are too apt to shirk, but which is quite 

 indispensable to sound business proceedings either of indi- 

 viduals or nations. 



There are many discrepancies in the estimates that have 

 been made of the total available quantity of British coal. 

 The speculative nature of some of the data renders this 

 inevitable, but all authorities appear to agree on one point, 

 viz., that the amount of our supplies will not be determined 

 by the actual total quantity of coal under our feet, but by 

 the possibilities of reaching it. This is doubtless correct, 

 but how will these possibilities be limited, and what is 

 the extent or range of the limit ? On both these points 

 I venture' to disagree with the eminent men who have 

 so ably discussed this question. First, as regards the 

 nature of the limit or barrier that will stop our further 

 progress in coal-getting. This is generally stated to be the 

 depth of the seams. The Royal Commissioners of 1870 

 base their tables of the quantity of available coal in the 

 visible and concealed coal-fields upon the assumption that 

 4000 feet is the limit of possible working. This limit is the 

 same that was taken bv Mr. Hull ten years earlier. Mr. 

 Hull, in the last edition of " The Coal Fields of Great 

 Britain," p. 326, referring to Professor Ramsey's estimate, 

 says, " These estimates are drawn up for depths down to 

 4000 feet below the surface, and even beyond this limit ; 

 but with this latter quantity it is scarcely necessary that we 

 should concern ourselves." I shall presently show reasons 

 for believing that the time may ultimately arrive when we 

 shall concern ourselves with this deep coal, and actually get 

 it ; while, on the other hand, that remote epoch will be pre- 

 ceded by another period of practical approximate exhaustion 



